REALITY AND ILLUSION

Meher Baba

The Universe has come out of God. God has not come out of the
universe. Illusion has come out of Reality. Reality has not come out of
illusion. God alone is Real; the universe by itself is illusion.

God's life lived in illusion, as the Avatar and as Perfect Masters,
is not illusory; whereas God's life lived in creation as all animate and
inanimate beings, is both real and illusory. Illusion, illusory life,
and God's life in illusion are not and cannot be one and the same.
Illusion has no life and can have no life.

Illusion is illusion and is
nothing by itself. Illusory life means life in illusion, with illusion,
surrounded by illusion, and though it is life (as experienced by the
Soul in creation) it is illusory life. But God's life lived in illusion
is not illusory because in spite of living the illusory life God remains
Conscious of His own Reality.

God is absolutely Independent, and the universe is entirely dependent
upon God. Yet when the Perfect Masters effect the descent of God on
earth as the Avatar, they make Reality and illusion interdependent, each
upon the other. And thus it is that His Infinite Mercy and Unbounded
Love are eternally drawn upon by those who are immersed in Illusion.

Between God and the Universe, infinite Mercy and unbounded Love act
as a prominent link which is eternally made use of by Men who become God
(Sadgurus, Perfect Masters or Qutubs), and by God who becomes Man
(Avatar, Christ or Rasool), and so the Universe becomes the eternal
playmate of God.

Through this prominent link the Avatar not only
established life in His Divine Play, but also established Law in
illusion. And, this law being established by the God-Man or Avatar is
the law of the law-less Infinite and it is eternally Real and at the
same time illusory. It is this Law that governs the universe; all its
"ups and downs," construction and devastation, are guided by the Law.

At the Cyclic period, God's independent Absoluteness is made to work
upon this Law by the God-Man as God's Will, and this means that anything
and everything that the Avatar wills is ordained by God.